


Take me higher

by hobikilledme



Series: Superhero Time [1]
Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Brief description of violence, Flying, Hero Vernon, Hospitals, M/M, Nonbinary Seungkwan, Vernon is a Mess, Villain Seungkwan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-12
Updated: 2020-03-12
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:21:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23113108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hobikilledme/pseuds/hobikilledme
Summary: Hansol is really just trying to get through college and being a superhero.
Relationships: Boo Seungkwan/Chwe Hansol | Vernon
Series: Superhero Time [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1692523
Comments: 11
Kudos: 83





	Take me higher

**Author's Note:**

> There is a brief description of violence which if that's not really your thing feel free to skip the second to last paragraph.
> 
> Also this isn't betaed I wrote it in one day please forgive any mistakes

There is 9.807 miles of air pressing on any person’s shoulder at any given time, holding them down to earth. Hansol has never once felt any of those miles. He has been floating since he was a baby, his mom having to fish him down from the corner of the ceiling with a net and has called him her little butterfly since. If he ever decided to bring anyone home, she would pull out photo albums where he can be seen floating in class pictures, hovering on top of the monkey bars, and being tied similar to a balloon at the age of four by his dad. “Ah look at my little butterfly,” she would probably sigh, “always with his head in the clouds.

He hasn’t changed much, still struggles to stay still, to not float in polite company. Superpowers aren’t uncommon by any means and his mom always frowns when she realizes he's doing it. “You have a gift, butterfly, don't hide it.” His sister always makes a face at him, softly glowing like a mini sun, and asks why he wants to pretend he’s normal.

He had joined a group of wanna be heroes when he was finishing high school, they had accidentally gotten big and much better funded, and then he decided that he wanted to go to college. So here he is, trying to pretend that he’s a normal student who definitely obeys the laws of gravity and definitely does not need to tell his mother how bad his grades are going. 

She always seems very proud when he tells her what they’ve been up to, helping citizens. She does keep calling them super police and Seungcheol gets upset, claiming that they are not class traitors like cops, they're simply like super guards. Either way, Vernon, the known flying hero, earns most of the money, and regular college student, Hansol, suffers in class.

\---

College sucks. It takes up most of his time, it demands more from him than hero work ever has and he’s exhausted. Don’t get him wrong, he loves learning and there’s so much to know but god, he’s so fucking tired. The other thing with college, there are just so many new people. Loud people and pretty people, people constantly in his space and people he really wants to be in his space. There’s this one person that he keeps seeing around campus, who always seems to be followed by their two extremely loud best friends and always by a cat or two. Hansol always appreciates service animals, (they're doing their best at their job!), but these just seem to be stray cats. Which is cool, except cats always seem to hate Hansol, and Hansol really wants to learn this person’s name. Maybe learn their hobbies and their interests and if they like the left side of the bed or the right and what are their thoughts on boys who have trouble keeping themselves grounded?

\---

On nights where he doesn’t have class the next day, he volunteers to patrol with whoever’s on duty. Tonight, it’s him and Mingyu, so they decide to split up, figuring that two flying heros can probably cover more ground. They get a call over their comms an hour in that there’s been a disturbance over in the tech district and Hansol sighs, saying he’s got it.

Floating like he's sitting with his legs crossed, he puts his head in his hands and watches from across the street as the so called villains wreak havoc on a corporate lab. Seungcheol probably didn’t have this in mind when he said he should start taking patrols more seriously. They aren’t doing anything bad really, the corporation definitely shouldn’t be allowed to patent this new seed that would end up decimating arable land over the next decade (he looked it up on the way over). He’s just acting as a referee, there to stop DK if his vines get a little too spicy and actually do knock out the guards instead of just restraining them, or contain Hoshi if he ends up setting something on fire. 

“Sweetheart, why aren’t you playing with the big boys tonight?” Hansol is so glad that Seungcheol talked him into a full face mask and a hood on his super suit because every time the last villain of the Disaster Trio shows up, his body slowly turning pink. 

“Kwannie,” He acknowledges as the villian walks the edge of the roof over to him. Their mask hides everything on their face except their eyes and has cat ears on top of it. Hansol thinks it's really cute but he had mentioned it one time while they were fighting and he found out their claws were very real and very sharp.

Over the past few months though, there’s been significantly less fighting between Hansol and the Disaster Trio as he started actually reading their mission statement on their website and becoming better friends with their look out, Kwannie. 

They were technically just environmental activists but they sure did cause a lot of property damage. DK was some sort of Earth elemental and was actually very sweet, once crying after he had broken a potted plant even though he was being held at gunpoint. Hoshi had some sort of pyrotelekinis and contortionist combination power and he was just a lot. Hansol had once watched him show up to a heist wearing a tiger fursuit. It was impressive if seemingly impractical. 

Kwannie was… something. Powerwise, they seemed to be able to communicate with cats, making them an excellent lookout and spy. They also seemed to have inherited the claws and hearing of a cat. Their goal was apparently to make Hansol as flustered and distracted as possible and they were very goal oriented. 

“What, cat got your tongue?” 

Hansol sighs, “Ha ha very funny, a real comedic genius.” He can tell that they’re grinning under their mask. 

“What are you guys planning for tonight?” The villain sits down beside him.

“Just patrolling, watching over you guys for awhile,” He shrugs, “Not real busy tonight.” 

Kwannie hums, looking back over to where Hoshi has now set two rooms on fire, “Mind if I keep you company, sunshine?” 

Hansol feels himself smiling, “Nope, make yourself comfortable.”  
\---

He walks into the cafe, red sunglasses on and feeling like every inch of the 9.807 miles of gravity is weighing on his shoulders. Jeonghan looks him up and down when he gets to the counter, “You look like you got slammed into a building.”

“I did,” Hansol plops his head on the counter and peers up at Jeonghan, feeling exactly like he had been squashed into a bunch of stone by an overpowered villain, which you know, he had, “Can I please have a strawberry frappuccino?” Jeonghan scoffs, writing his name on a cup and turning away before he can get out his card. He shrugs, turning around to try and find a spot to study. There’s an open seat by the window with a person on either side which will have to do. Sighing, he puts his bag down, unpacking all of the books his Literature professor had assigned and starts stacking them in size order. Jeonghan ends up bringing him his pink drink, having added whipped cream to it. Hansol glances up to thank him and his attention gets snagged by the person beside him and their notes. 

They have an agenda, a bullet journal, and the prettiest handwriting he’s ever seen. There’s little stickers of clementines and cats over everything and star shaped sticky notes with lines of characters down them. Hansol is star struck, his notes consist of either scribbling on his iPad or loose leaf paper he shoves into his bag. He turns to tell the person how beautiful their work is and he realizes that it's Them. The Beautiful Person with the round face and sweet smile. Oh no. Oh god, he has to leave. No, that’ll look too suspicious, he should just pretend to study instead. 

So for the next hour and a half, he pretends to study, trying to measure out the sips of his drink and turn the page of his book enough times that it doesn’t look weird. Finally, he decides that he’s spent enough time looking studious and makes his escape, yelling bye to Jeonghan. Hansol is pretty good at being observant, but he still managed to miss the smiles the pretty boy had been throwing at him all day and the long glance as they watch him sprint away from the cafe.

\---  
Seungcheol finds them together on patrol one night. It’s not something that happens often, but sometimes Hansol gets bored so he goes looking for Kwannie. 

“What are you doing?” He hisses, pulling Hansol over to him, “Why are you hanging out with a villain?”

“It’s fine, relax, Kwannie isn't gonna hurt me or anything. Oh wait sorry,” Hansol pauses, turning back to the villain standing behind him, ignoring how Seungcheol looks more and more frustrated, “What are your pronouns? Just want to make sure.” 

Kwannie looks startled but a slow flush creeps over their exposed ears. “I use they, them, pronouns, darling.”

“Sick,” Hansol turns back around to see Seungcheol with his head in his hands and Chan on the ground, wheezing, “Anyways, they weren’t doing anything like, really bad, so I didn’t think it was that big of a deal?” Hansol floats back over to Kwannie, “I’ll see you guys later.” He hears Chan laughing long after they’ve moved on.

\---

“I just think you should be more careful,” Seungcheol begins. They all are at their ‘base’ which is just the basement of Seungcheol’s house. Chan is trying to beat Mingyu at Mario Kart and Hansol is floating over the couch, watching them.

Hansol rolls his eyes, looking pointedly over at Minghao sitting on one of the bean bag chairs they had decorated the place with. “Hey now, I’m morally grey,” Minghao chimes in without looking up from his phone. 

Seungcheol sighs, “Please stop questioning my boyfriend’s villianhood, you know it makes him upset.” 

“I didn't say anything!” Hansol tries to interject.

“I can hear you anyways, dumbass,” Minghao sighs, tossing his phone away, “Do you want me to come on a patrol and see who they really are?”

Hansol shakes his head, floating away from the other boy, “That’s such a huge violation of their privacy, I would never do that.”

Minghao rolls over, moving towards where Seungcheol is sitting on another bean bag. “Suit yourself,” he says and curls into his boyfriend.

\---

Hansol likes to hover a little above whatever he’s sitting on, just for the thrill of it he told Seungcheol. The real reason is that in fourth grade, a kid pulled his seat out from under him and he still remembers the half second of terror before his powers kicked in and had decided that he was never going to be caught unaware again. Here, he feels that same half second of terror as he bumps into someone and sends their stuff flying everywhere. Oh god he’s going to die of embarrassment, should he have fallen over? Which way would gravity have pushed him? He ends up just sort of in a crouch, hoping to god whoever he ran into doesn’t yell at him.

“Oh god, I’m so sorry,” Hansol looks up at the source of the voice. Of course, it’s the Beautiful Person. They’re waving their hands around, trying to pick up their stuff, “I wasn’t watching where I was going and I promise I didn’t mean to hurt you if you are hurt that is.” 

Hansol unfreezes, trying to help pick everything up and hand it back to them. The Beautiful Person looks up, in the middle of saying thank you when they just start staring at Hansol, “Oh I-” 

Hansol jumps up, looking at his wrist that definitely doesn't have a watch on it, “Ha ha would you look at the time! So Sorry!” and turns and flees.

\---

“Hey babe.” Hansol rolls his eyes, flipping over so he’s face to face with Kwannie. “Hmm the upside-down look does wonders for your hair.” They laugh when he starts pouting, moving over to the other edge of the roof and plopping down. Hansol floats over when they pat the space next to them. He ends up sitting opposite them, swinging his legs like he’s seated in thin air. They shake their head, “That makes me so nervous, angel.” 

Hansol smiles at that, most of his friends having grown out of their fear that he would fall a long time ago. Hansol fears a lot of things, bees, failing chemistry, the pretty person they see in the cafe, but falling is not one of them. “It’s okay I promise, I can just turn gravity off for me.” 

They stare at him from behind their mask, eyes looking intently curious. “Is it conscious?” 

Hansol laughs, “Oh no, the floating is easier than breathing, it's the coming back down that’s hard.” They sit in silence for a while, staring at the cars passing below, the lights sparkling like earthbound stars in the night. Hansol surprises himself by breaking the silence, “Why’d you decide to be a villain?” 

Kwannie sighs, bringing one knee up to rest their head on. “I didn’t really set out to be a villain, that’s just sort of what everyone labelled me as. I don’t think of myself as a villain, I tell my mom about the work I’m doing, you know minus the guns, and she’s proud of me for it, so how could it really be bad or evil?” That pangs something deep in Hansol’s chest.

“There’s legal ways to go about things you know.”

Kwannie laughs at that, “Sure, but the adrenaline rush of knowing you maybe just saved the world? That's why I get up in the morning.”

Hansol really can’t argue with that. He floats back over the rooftop, extending a hand, “We should probably keep moving if we are actually doing a patrol.” Kwannie takes his hand, pulling themselves up,

“Yeah, sweetheart, let’s go.”

\---

Chan looks at him as they wander around doing patrols, “Have you ever tried calling them a nickname back?”  
“Who?” This seems like an abrupt change of topic from Hansol complaining about chemistry again.  
Chan rolls his eyes, “Kwannie, who else talks about you like that? Have you ever teased them back?”  
Hansol shudders at the idea, “ Oh god that would be so embarrassing!” Chan shrugs, moving to help a young mother lift a stroller up the subway steps. She smiles gratefully at them.

“Maybe the best way to get to them is to play their own game against them?”  
\--

Hansol can feel his palms sweating under his gloves, oh god what if he throws up? That would be so gross. Nobody would ever like a hero that smelled like vomit. Kwannie looks over at him from where they’re walking along the top of a fence. “Hey,” They tug him over by the corner of his jacket, “What’s wrong sunshine? You’re really quiet tonight.” 

Hansol takes a deep breath, “Sorry I just-” He stops as Kwannie’s hand comes up to play with his hair under his hood. Maybe he’ll just die from his heart beating out of his chest.

“You know you talk to me if something is stressing you out, butterfly, I’ll listen I promise.” 

Hansol laughs at that, Kwannie tilting their head, confused. He reaches up to cup their hand, “My mom calls me that actually.” Hansol has never hated these stupid masks more than righ now because he can see Kwannie smiling from their eyes. 

“It suits you.” 

Hansol laughs again, much less nervous than before, “Then what suits you?” 

Kwannie looks taken by surprise, “What?”

Hansol grins, “Do you like being called sweetheart?” He wraps an arm around their waist, pulling himself closer, “How about darling? Buttercup? Clementine?” Kwannie sputters, seemingly lost for words for once. Hansol leans in, whispering now, “Do you like being called all of those?” They look up at him, eyes wide.

Suddenly both of their comms crackle to life, startling both of them out of the intense atmosphere. Kwannie falls off the fence, landing perfectly and leaving Hansol clutching nothing.

“I should go.” They turn around, looking over their shoulder one last time, “See you around, butterfly?”

Hansol can hear Seungcheol arguing with Mingyu over the comms, “Yeah,” he says softly, “See you later.”

\---  
Thursdays are the only day he doesn’t have classes, so he usually patrols during the day when he doesn’t have a lot of homework to catch up on. He checks in on his favorite shop keepers, helping them move their stuff around, helping older women cross the street, just normal hero stuff. He’s leaving a grocery store with a bag full of food the owners had given him when he feels a tap on his shoulder. He turns around, finding the Beautiful Person standing behind him. He can see their friends at the cafe across the street, wearing sunglasses and pretending like they’re not staring at the two of them. 

“Hey there,” Hansol drags his eyes back to their blinding smile, “I noticed you earlier and my friends said I should give you this,” They hold out a piece of paper that has a number scribbled on it. Hansol freezes, feeling his whole body slowly turn red, thank god for this damn mask. 

“I’ve heard heros are great partners,” They say, their grin widening.

Oh, oh he had forgotten he was still dressed as Vernon. Of course people would want to flirt with him like this. He was a big name hero. Who would want to be with a socially anxious guy who’s failing general chemistry and struggles to make eye contact on a good day? He takes the paper feeling numb. “Uhm yeah I’ll uhm text you?” They wink at him before walking back to their friends.

He avoids looking for Kwannie for weeks after that.

\---  
Looking back, Hansol figures they should have called for backup as soon as they arrived. Mingyu and him had responded to a call through their comms to the warehouse district during one of their night patrols. When they had gotten there, the Disaster Trio had already been there. That’s when things went wrong.

The trio was fighting against a group of people who took one look at the two heros, and dragged them into the fight. Usually the other group looked glad to see them. Hansol didnt think about it for too long, too busy trying to avoid stray punches and figure out what the actual problem was. He ends up back to back with Kwannie at some point, the two of them well versed in fighting together.

“Hey angel,” They say it like they want to say asshole. Kwannie blocks a punch, knocking the other guy out with a kick to the head, “Finally decided to show up huh?” 

Hansol winces, “Listen I had my reasons, I just,” Kwannie spins around to glare at him.

“You just what?” They start to advance on him, jabbing a finger towards his chest, “You just thought you could ignore me?” They sound really hurt. 

“No I-” Hansol starts, and then he sees that one of the goons has a very big ray gun thing pointed at them. Kwannie’s back to be specific. 

Hansol doesn't think, he just moves, spinning them so they’re out of the way and he’s blocking them. 

The next bit of his life happens in a bunch of sensory flashes:  
Kwannie shouting his name, the fear clear and cold  
Mingyu turning in what seems like slow motion, panic written across his face  
The impact of the ray, dull like a punch to his chest  
The feeling of 9.807 miles of gravity tugging his body to the floor  
And finally the deep crimson roar of pain

He must have blacked out from the onslaught of pain because when he blinks his eyes open again, Kwannie is kneeling over him. “Hey, hey sweetheart stay with me okay?” Kwannie’s voice is shaking and maybe Hansol’s vision is fucked up too cause it looks like their hands are also shaking. Hansol tries to grab their hand but his arm isn't listening to him. Oh right, getting shot, that makes sense why everything hurts. “Hey love, l-look at me okay?” Kwannie is pressing on Hansol’s chest and it hurts. 

“Kwan, kwannie that hurts please” Hansol tries to get them to stop, but wow he feels really cold all of a sudden. He vaguely registers that Kwannie is yelling for help, maybe at their teammates? He’s too tired to think. He’s just gonna close his eyes for a second. 

“Hey! Baby no, no, I need you to stay awake, come on, Vernon, please,” They're patting his cheek now, maybe he should be worried about his mask. 

“Hansol,” he manages to cough out, Kwannie is finally quiet.

“W-what?”

“My name,” Oh huh everything looks really dark, “my name is Hansol.” 

Kwannie looks startled, why are they crying? “O-okay, okay Hansol, babe, you need to stay with me okay?”

Hansol feels himself slipping out of consciousness, “Yeah of course Kwannie, anything for you,” and he passes out.

\---

When Hansol wakes up, he is immediately blinded by bright fluorescent light. Hissing, he tries to sit up and realizes that there is a whole bunch of tubes attached to his arm. Hospital his brain provides, and his whole world view stutters a bit. Oh shit, he could have died, is his family okay are they worried? He looks around to find a call button, he needs to tell Seungcheol he’s okay and a machine monitoring his heart rate starts to beep incestanly. There’s a flurry of motion as someone falls out of a chair from where they were sitting in the corner and rush over to his side.

“Oh, oh my god you’re awake! Oh my god I didn't , I thought-” Hansol wracks his brain trying to figure out why the incredibly beautiful person he sees around campus and is half in love with is currently weeping on him.

“Uhm,” he shifts nervously, “I’m so sorry, I promise, I’m not an asshole or anything I just, don't know who you are?” 

The Beautiful Person freezes tears still streaming down their face, clutching his hand that isn’t covered in wires. “Oh” They look down, seeming to only now realize that they’re practically draped over Hansol, “Oh I’m sorry, I’ve just been, I’ve been here for days and I didn’t know if you were ever going to wake up and-” 

They keep rambling on and Hansol feels something pricking at the back of his brain, “Kwannie?” 

They smile, “Yeah, uhm actually my full name is Seungkwan.” Hansol starts laughing.

\---

Hansol later learns that he spent a week unconscious, the blast hitting his chest and left shoulder and nearly clipping his jugular. He lost so much blood he shouldn’t have made it. The only reason he lived was DK, now known as Seokmin, wrapping vines around his chest and shoulder tightly enough that Mingyu had time to get him to the hospital. Seungkwan had been forced to leave the hospital while they were operating on him, having been absolutely inconsolable. Seungcheol tells him that they stayed in his room everyday hoping that he would wake up. Seungkwan tells him that he didn’t float once in seven days.

Seungkwan holds his hand and laughs while crying when he does start floating again, annoying the nurses for tugging on the IV lines.

He also learns later that Seungkwan likes the left side of the bed, that they find it cute when he can't help but smile into a kiss, and his mom adores them. They joke about their dumb superhero names together, laughing for hours. Hansol also laughs when Seungcheol sighs at him for dating a villain, the hypocrite. He makes Seungkwan let him hold them and takes them flying, smiling with all his teeth as they shriek. Hansol kisses them and feels like his feet will never touch the ground again.

**Author's Note:**

> [https://twitter.com/hobikilledme>](url)


End file.
